1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular information system developing apparatus, a vehicular information system developing tool, and a vehicular information system developing method, for developing a vehicular information system having a function of displaying figures on the screen in accordance with a transition state, as well as to a navigation system developing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional development of a navigation system to be provided on a motor vehicle or the like, an orderer sends a recipient a specification that describes, for example, how a display on the display screen of the navigation system should be changed in response to a prescribed command and what figures should be displayed in each display state. The recipient understands the contents of those items and develops, based on the specification, a program that causes correct transitions between pictures and draws figures correctly in each transition state.
In developing a program, the recipient must generate applications of fundamental functions such as route search, location, route guidance, and facility search as well as manipulation transition data, generate control data to be used for controlling transition between display states based on the manipulation transition data and controlling execution of an application in accordance with a prescribed command, and generate display control data to be used for controlling figures etc. to be displayed in each display state. The display control data are processed under the control of the control data, and graphics data displayed in each display state are incorporated in the display control data; the control data and the graphics data are correlated with each other in a complicated manner in the display control data.
In the conventional development of a navigation system that is performed in the above-described manner, the relationship between the control data and the graphics data is complex and hence if part of the graphics data or the control data are modified other parts of the graphics data or the control data relating to the modified part should also be modified. It is difficult for unskilled persons to make such a modification; it is difficult for the orderer himself to generate graphics data, etc.
For the above reasons, the orderer can gives an order to a recipient only on a specification basis and can judge whether a program correctly reflect the intentions of the orderer only through operation in a program development environment or on an actual machine. Therefore, there may occur deviations from the intentions of the orderer in pictures drawn owing to the recipient""s misunderstanding of the specification, for example. This result in a problem that the efficiency of development is low as exemplified by corrections of a program on the recipient side.
An object of the invention is to provide a vehicular information system developing apparatus, a vehicular information system developing tool, a vehicular information system developing method, and a navigation system developing method which make it possible to easily modify graphics-related data while causing almost no alterations in the contents of the display control data used for controlling the display of Figures.
Accordingly, the invention provides a vehicular information system developing apparatus comprising an input section through which graphics-related data are externally input, the graphics-related data including graphics data relating to figures to be displayed on a screen and operation description data that are set for respective figures and describe operations of the figures on the screen; a storage section for storing control data to be used for controlling transition between display states in accordance with a prescribed command and display control data to be used for displaying figures on the screen in each state based on the operation description data; and a conversion section for incorporating the graphics-related data into the display control data and for generating an execution program based on resulting data and the control data.
In the above vehicular information system developing apparatus, operation description data which are data relating to operation description of figures are separated from graphics data. Therefore, graphics-related data can easily be modified without altering the contents of display control data, and can be generated externally.
Another object of the invention is to provide a vehicular information system developing method and a navigation system developing method which allow an orderer to generate intended pictures by generating, by himself, data relating to figures to be drawn and thereby make it possible to reduce deviations in intentions relating to figures to be drawn between the orderer and a recipient.
Accordingly, the invention provides a vehicular information system developing method by which a recipient develops, in response to an order from an orderer, a vehicular information system desired by the orderer, wherein the orderer generates, by using a vehicular information system developing tool provided by the recipient, graphics-related data including graphics data relating to figures to be displayed on a screen and operation description data that describe operations of figures on the screen, and provides the generated graphics-related data to the recipient, to thereby generate the orderer""s intended pictures. Further, according to the vehicular information system developing method of the invention, the recipient inputs the graphics-related data in a vehicular information system developing apparatus, incorporates the graphics-related data into display control data to be used for displaying figures on the screen in each display state based on the operation description data, and generates an execution program based on resulting data and control data to be used for controlling transition between display states in accordance with a prescribed command. By utilizing graphics-related data generated by the orderer, deviations in intentions relating to figures to be drawn between the orderer and the recipient can be reduced.